Unforgettable teacher, mentor at Central Catholic
Brother Benedict Oliver was that teacher — the one that no one ever forgets.
Those lucky enough to know him as an educator, friend or colleague felt the indelible mark that his skill and spirit left, especially at Central Catholic High School in Oakland, where he served for many years.
“If the school ever had a Mt. Rushmore of educators, Brother Benedict would be front and center,” said former student Len Pasquarelli, a retired NFL sports writer and Pro Football Hall of Fame voter.
Mr. Pasquarelli credits “Brother Ben” as he was known, for his successes, as do a host of other wellknown writers, executives and luminaries, including Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.
“Brother Benedict is an outstanding example and reflection of the staff at Central Catholic, a person who was an excellent teacher but an even better mentor and friend,” Mr. Zappala said.
“He touched a great deal of lives not only with his work in the classroom but also his work with the religious order, and he will be missed by many.” Brother Benedict, a teacher, school administrator and faith leader in The Brothers of the Christian Schools, died Aug. 11 of complications from kidney disease at his retirement home in Lincroft, N.J. He was 83.
Born John Herbert Oliver Jr., Brother Benedict grew up in West Philadelphia, the oldest of four boys. He felt a calling early on in his life to serve God as an educator, family and friends said.
“At that time, the neighborhood was a big, Irish Catholic ghetto near the University of Pennsylvania,” said his longtime friend and colleague Brother Robert Schaefer, leader of the Eastern North America District of The Brothers of the Christian Schools.
“He was a student at West Catholic Preparatory High School, where the brothers taught.
He always said it was their love for teaching and the students and their sense of community to each other that first attracted him.” Brother Benedict earned a bachelor’s degree in English and a master’s degree in theology from La Salle University, along with a graduate degree in educational leadership from Duquesne University.
It was his older brother’s devotion that first piqued his interest in joining a religious order, said Brother Richard Oliver, OSB, who became a Benedictine monk at St. John’s Abbey in Minnesota.
“I remember visiting him at the novitiate in Ammendale, Md., and the scholasticate in Elkins Park, Pa.,” said Brother Richard, who is seven years younger than Brother Benedict.
Brother Benedict joined the Christian Brothers order in June 1956 and took on the name Dennis Benedict, which was later shortened to just “Benedict.”
He taught English in the early years of career, including at Central Catholic, from 1961 until 1973, when he was appointed principal at the high school.
He temporarily left the local post in 1977 and served as principal at several high schools and as a formation director, overseeing the training of brotherhood candidates, at the Christian Brothers’ Jeremy House Scholasticate near Philadelphia from 1984 to 1991.
In 1991, he returned briefly to Central Catholic, where he became the school’s first director of development until 1994 when he was elected leader of the regional district of the Christian Brothers in Baltimore.
Brother Benedict went to Nairobi, Kenya, for two years to work as a teacher and formator at Christ The Teacher Institute for Education.
Afterward, he returned to Central Catholic, where Brother Benedict started a writing center for students and worked until his retirement in 2017.
Last month, Brother Benedict was able to attend his brother’s Golden Jubilee celebration at St. John’s Abbey.
“It was a busy weekend, but we did have a few times for private conversation,” Brother Richard recalled. “We both choked a bit when we realized that that would probably be the last time we would see each other.”
Throughout his career, he was “effective and impactful” in all of his educational appointments, including as an adviser to the Central Catholic drama department, Brother Schaefer said.
“All of us who have known Brother Benedict know that he was destined to become a Christian educator, and that his deepest gladness was in the classroom, in his interactions with his students,” Brother Schaefer said in a eulogy that he delivered at Brother Benedict’s funeral Mass last week. “He was a master teacher of English and religion. Many of his former students ... have remarked since his death that he was by far the best teacher they ever had in their lives.”
His real- life brother agreed.
“I think he was destined to be an educator,” Brother Richard said. “He inherited our Irish mother’s ready wit and facile tongue that he no doubt employed to great effect in classrooms with appreciative high school boys.”
Brother Benedict served as a “tremendous and challenging” teacher who made a lasting impact in his life, said recently retired Los Angeles Times senior editorial writer Michael McGough, who graduated from Central Catholic in 1969.
“He was my English teacher for three out of the four years that I was there, and that was an extremely lucky thing for me,” said Mr. McGough, who also worked for 30 years as a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reporter, editorial writer and columnist.
“The reading list in that class compared to some freshman college reading lists,” he said. “He also had great editing skills. He would put our essays up on an overhead projector, and he would go down with a felttip pen, line by line. He was never cruel or cutting, but if he even raised a question about a word or phrase, it was devastating —and he was almost always right.”
When Brother Benedict served as adviser to the school newspaper, he continued to prepare his students for the bane of all writers: criticism.
“I was writing editorials for the school paper — prophetically. I think Brother Benedict had a very sensible approach and wasn’t too heavy- handed,” Mr. McGough recalled. “His job as an educator was to allow us to make our own mistakes every now and then. I’ve had a lot of very good teachers, but he was the best teacher I ever had for what I needed.”
Along with his brother, Brother Benedict is survived by another brother, Tom Oliver, of Tsaile, Ariz.
He was preceded in death by his brother Mike Oliver.
In lieu of flowers, donations to Central Catholic High School, 4720 Fifth Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213 in memory of Brother Benedict, would be appreciated.